Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part B

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- The story, The Girl and the Turkeys, tells of a very poor girl who tends turkeys for the rich people. It is similar, in some ways, to the story of Cinderella. There is going to be a party, but the poor girl cannot attend. She does not have the rich clothing that is necessary, and she's very dirty, although she is a pretty girl. The turkeys decide to help her, in much the way the fair godmother helps Cinderella, because she is always kind and takes good care of them. In exchange for their help, she must promise not to forget her turkey friends and to return early enough to care for them. However, she is having such a good time with the dancing and the attention that she forgets. The turkeys decide to leave. The moral of the story is, basically, that some people are poor because they do not know how to act or conduct themselves better. They are poor because they deserve to be poor.
- The conduct of the girl at the dance doesn't match the personality that she'd portrayed in the prior part of the story. It doesn't make sense. It's as though the story is trying to shoehorn in a moral lesson that doesn't fit. Come to that, the lesson itself is faulty. The girl is not poor because she deserves to be poor. No one is poor because they deserve to be. Some people are born into very lucky circumstances, some into very unlucky ones, and most are born somewhere in the middle. All people, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, can learn to be better. They can also be bad people, depending on various outside circumstances. I know of many rich people who most certainly do not deserve their luck and many poor people who deserve much more than they have.
- I would write a story in which the turkey girl remembers her promise, because the girl from the story WOULD remember her promise. She would have no reason not to. She understands what it feels like to be neglected, and she wouldn't inflict that on the turkeys that she'd always cared for. She especially wouldn't do it after the turkeys were so kind to her.



Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson. Web source.